Describe yourself in 3 words…
Way too relaxed.
What inspires you?
The people who haven’t lost their sense of play and have fun in their craft/day-to-day – it’s something I remind myself to go back to all the time.
Tell us about your worst ever gig?
My first public poetry performance was UniSlam in 2017. I had no issue memorising my pieces in practice beforehand, but on the day, I blanked midway through the piece, and it completely threw me off for the rest of that round. We finished in last place, and it took me more than a year afterwards to attempt performance off-book (which I blanked again midway)
What’s your number one poetry pet peeve?
This is more of an open mic thing. I don’t mind preambles if they’re done in a way that serves the piece/the audience where the poem wouldn’t by itself. I’ve seen occasions where a preamble feels longer than the poem, or over-contextualises the poem – to the point where the impact of the piece doesn’t hit as much as it could have.
Whose words do you love at the moment?
Too many poets to single out at the moment – although I read a lot of Out-Spoken Press books over the summer which I particularly enjoyed!
I find myself going back to the Inflo-produced musicians a lot, at least every other day. So Little Simz, Cleo Sol, Michael Kiwanuka, Sault, that genre of artist.
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
It’s a common one, but everyone progresses at a different pace, and progression isn’t a linear timeline either. You’ll be thankful that you ended up where you did, and you won’t care how long or which route you had to take to get there.
If you could do someone else’s job for a day, who would it be?
A recent one would probably be Noah Lyles, he’s just the right level of villain – it was a special night on social media when he won the 100m this summer! Historically, I’d love to have been prime Michael Jordan for a day, including all his side hustles.
Francis-Xavier Mukiibi
Francis-Xavier Mukiibi is a poet and spoken word performer of Ugandan heritage from North London. He is an alumnus of the Barbican Young Poets, Roundhouse Poetry Collective and Obsidian Foundation.
His forthcoming debut pamphlet, Mutabani &
He produced one of 40 short poetry films as part of the Apples and Snakes Future Voices programme, and he participated in the Apples and Snakes Word’s A Stage cohort for 2024. He has featured in various festivals throughout the UK, including Festival2Funky, the Camden Inspire Festival, and the Roundhouse Last Word Festival.
Insta: fxmpoetry I X: fxmpoetry
Website: https://www.fxmpoetry.com